It has been quite a while since we first donned the metaphorical red cloak and ventured into the harrowing world of Gilead. For fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, the wait for a successor has felt like an eternal stay in the Colonies. However, the wait is officially nearing its end. Disney+ has finally pulled back the curtain on the official trailer and key art for the highly anticipated Original drama series, “The Testaments,” and it looks set to be the television event of the year.
Based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 Booker Prize winning novel and scheduled to premiere in Australia on 8 April, the show promises a fresh perspective on the totalitarian regime we have come to know (and fear) so well.
A New Generation of Resistance
While the original series focused heavily on the immediate trauma of the revolution and the plight of the Handmaids, The Testaments shifts its lens toward those who have grown up within the system. This is a coming-of-age story, though certainly not of the “sunny high school” variety.
The narrative centres on two young women: Agnes, a girl raised in the pious, stifling comfort of Gilead’s elite, and Daisy, a newcomer arriving from beyond the borders. Their paths collide within the “gilded halls” of an elite preparatory school for future wives. It is a setting that sounds deceptively elegant until you remember who is running the show.
The Return of a Legend
Of course, it wouldn’t be Gilead without its most formidable architect of discipline. Ann Dowd reprises her iconic role as Aunt Lydia. If the trailer is any indication, we are about to see a much more complex side of the woman who once famously told her charges that “freedom to” is not the same as “freedom from.”
In this new chapter, Lydia oversees the education of these young women, ensuring obedience is instilled with “divine justification.” However, the bond that forms between Agnes and Daisy appears to be the crack in the foundation that Aunt Lydia might not be able to repair.
How to Watch
Disney+ is making sure we have plenty to binge right out of the gate. The series will debut with a three-episode premiere on 8 April, followed by weekly instalments.
For those worried about the darker themes of Gilead popping up on their children’s profiles, Disney+ has highlighted its robust parental controls. You can set access limits on mature content and PIN-protect profiles, ensuring the more intense moments of the revolution stay strictly in the adults-only lounge.
It has been a long journey from the banks of the Chesapeake Bay to the inner sanctums of Aunt Lydia’s school, but the revolution is clearly far from over.
